The invention disclosed herein relates generally to automated mail sorting and more particularly, a method of processing return to sender mail using an automated mailpiece sorting apparatus with integrated voice recognition.
The processing and handling of mailpieces consumes an enormous amount of human and financial resources, particularly if the processing of the mailpieces is done manually. The processing and handling of mailpieces not only takes place at the Postal Service, but also occurs at each and every business or other site where communication via the mail delivery system is utilized. That is, various pieces of mail generated by a plurality of departments and individuals within a company need to be addressed, collected, sorted and franked as part of the outgoing mail process. Additionally, incoming mail needs to be collected and sorted efficiently to ensure that it gets to the addressee (i.e. employee or department) in a minimal amount of time. Since much of the documentation and information being conveyed through the mail system is critical in nature relative to the success of a business, it is imperative that the processing and handling of both the incoming and outgoing mailpieces be done efficiently and reliably so as not to negatively impact the functioning of the business.
Various automated mail handling machines have been developed for processing incoming mail (removing individual pieces of mail from a stack and performing subsequent actions on each individual piece of mail). Generally, the mail handling machines separate individual mailpieces from a stack, read the mailpieces using an optical character recognition (OCR) system and compare the read information to an addressee database in order to determine the appropriate destination points for delivery of the mailpieces. Some of the incoming mail received at a mailroom of the company can be unreadable by the OCR system, the quantity of which can be great since recipients cannot control the addressee format in which the incoming mail is received. Some of the unreadable mail could be, for example, mail which is not OCR readable xe2x80x9cOCR rejectsxe2x80x9d (i.e. smeared or needs to be opened to determine addressee), xe2x80x9cmystery mailxe2x80x9d which mail with no particular addressee (i.e. mail addressed to a company or department only or mail with poor quality handwriting), or xe2x80x9cresearch mailxe2x80x9d (i.e. mail that can not be read by OCR but does not require opening for the operator to determine the addressee, including the situation where there are several potential addressees with the same name). The unreadable mail, which will be referred to generally as xe2x80x9creject mailxe2x80x9d is expensive to process since it drains the resources of the mail room requiring additional time and labor for sorting and delivery.
Another type of mail which can be categorized as unreadable generally by incoming mail sorting apparatus is xe2x80x9creturn to senderxe2x80x9d (RTS) since the addressee, in most cases, is not in the addressee database of the mail sorting apparatus. These mailpieces, absent additional processing, are typically delivered to the xe2x80x9cOCR rejectxe2x80x9d bin.
Typical xe2x80x9creturn to senderxe2x80x9d mail is marked with xe2x80x9creturn to senderxe2x80x9d text and/or a graphics symbol. The graphics symbols applied to xe2x80x9creturn to senderxe2x80x9d mail are not uniform or standard and are not applied to a standard location on xe2x80x9creturn to senderxe2x80x9d mailpieces. For these reasons, there are challenges to recognizing the xe2x80x9creturn to senderxe2x80x9d symbol on a mailpiece by using an OCR system. Thus, a typical OCR system configured to recognized text would need additional capabilities and additional xe2x80x9cread regionsxe2x80x9d to recognize xe2x80x9creturn to senderxe2x80x9d icon or markings.
Previously, if a determination could not be made by the incoming mail handling machine as to the addressee, a video image of the mailpiece was viewed by an operator and in the case where the addressee image was readable by the operator, addressee information was keyed into the system and associated with an identification number for the mailpiece. This is typically done after the unreadable mailpieces are sorted into a reject bin because it requires time to make the determination and provide the information to the system for proper sorting. The previously rejected mailpieces are then resorted by reading the identification information which can be printed on the mail during the first sort. The identification information is linked with the addressee information manually keyed in by the operator during the reject processing/video coding sequence and is used to sort the mailpiece to the proper destination bin.
Video processing of mailpieces has been performed at on-site video coding terminals or off-site video coding facilities where the video image is transmitted for determination of addressee by an operator. The information is then transferred back to the sorting apparatus. The software and hardware costs associated with video processing can be high because video coding requires additional computer systems, image servers and workstations. Additionally, licensing fees for video coding software can be expensive. Video coding can also be labor intensive because the operator has to input information using a keyboard. While predictive keying can be used, the operator is still bogged down with using his or her hands to input addressee information. With video coding, a separate video coding operator is needed in apart from the incoming mailpiece sorting apparatus operator in order to keep throughput on the sorting apparatus while processing rejects.
It would be helpful if the mailpieces for which an intended recipient has not been identified could be processed additionally, quickly and in an automated fashion so as to encumber fewer additional resources. One of the problems of the prior art is that a system is not available for quickly processing xe2x80x9creturn to senderxe2x80x9d mailpieces. Another problem of the prior art is that a system is not available which produces higher throughput. Another problem of the prior art is that is can be expensive. Yet another problem of the prior art is that incoming mail handling machines do not include integrated xe2x80x9creturn to senderxe2x80x9d processing. Therefore, a method of processing unreadable mailpieces is needed which integrates xe2x80x9creturn to senderxe2x80x9d processing with the incoming mailpiece sorting apparatus at lower cost and with greater throughput.
This invention overcomes the disadvantages of the prior art by providing a method of processing xe2x80x9creturn to senderxe2x80x9d mailpieces which can provide better throughput and be performed with lower cost. This in turn affords quicker mailpiece processing. The present invention is directed to, in general, automated mail sorting and more particularly, a method of processing xe2x80x9creturn to senderxe2x80x9d mail using an automated mailpiece sorting apparatus with integrated voice recognition for xe2x80x9creturn to senderxe2x80x9d processing. An operator reads sender information from xe2x80x9creturn to senderxe2x80x9d mailpieces into the voice recognition system and places the mailpiece into the mailpiece sorting apparatus feed path for appropriate sorting.
The mailpiece sorting apparatus may generally comprise a feeder, a scanner, a mailpiece deliverer, a bin module with compartments or bins for receiving sorted mailpieces, optical character recognition system (OCR) for reading addressee information, a personal computer (PC) or microprocessor based system, recipient matching software and an addressee database. The mailpiece sorting apparatus of the present invention also comprises a voice recognition system.
In an embodiment of the present invention, mailpieces are sorted by the mailpiece sorting apparatus. Mailpieces that can be read properly by the mailpiece sorting apparatus OCR system are sent to their designated sort bins. Mailpieces that the mailpiece sorting apparatus OCR system determines to be xe2x80x9creturn to senderxe2x80x9d mailpieces are sent to a xe2x80x9creturn to senderxe2x80x9d bin. Once the sorting is completed, the xe2x80x9creturn to senderxe2x80x9d mailpieces are processed using a voice recognition mode.
During the xe2x80x9creturn to senderxe2x80x9d voice recognition mode, the feeder of the mailpiece sorting apparatus can be set to manual feed. This allows the operator to manually or hand feed individual mailpieces into the mailpiece sorting apparatus. A voice recognition software system which enables mailpiece addressee look-up is also activated. The operator obtains a xe2x80x9creturn to senderxe2x80x9d mailpiece and determines the sender address segment. This sender address segment could be, for example, the sender last name, mail stop, department, building, or company. The characters for the proper address segment are spoken by the operator one at a time (single character input) into a microphone connected to voice recognition software. The voice recognition software interprets the characters and communicates the characters to recipient matching software. Alternatively, the operator could speak entire words identifying the addressee; this alternative could use voice recognition software programmed for name recognition rather than dictionary word (letter-by-letter) recognition.
Using the single character input embodiment, as each character is input into the voice recognition system, the voice recognition system narrows down the list of potential recipient matches in the mailpiece sorting apparatus addressee database. This continues until a sender is identified or no match can be made. If a match is made, the operator is given a visual or audio prompt to place the mailpiece into the mailpiece sorting apparatus feeder. The mailpiece sorting apparatus sends the mailpiece to the proper sort bin based on the sender identification performed by the matching software. If the sender could not be matched via the spoken characters, the operator is given a different visual or audio prompt by the mailpiece sorting apparatus and sets the piece aside for later disposition. An additional feature of the present invention tracks and calculates statistical information regarding the total number of xe2x80x9creturn to senderxe2x80x9d mailpieces as compared to the total number of mailpieces sorted. A correlation may also be made of the information to the sender for chargeback purposes. The mailpiece sorting apparatus could generate report(s) detailing counts of the xe2x80x9creturn to senderxe2x80x9d mailpieces as well as operator productivity measurements.
If the xe2x80x9creturn to senderxe2x80x9d that were corrected by spoken characters can require further sorting passes after the voice entry processing, additional operations are needed to store the recipient information for the piece. During the first sort pass when the xe2x80x9creturn to senderxe2x80x9d mailpieces are identified and collected, a bar code identification (ID) can be printed on xe2x80x9creturn to senderxe2x80x9d mailpieces. The bar code data is unique to each piece. When the operator single feeds each rejected mailpiece after performing the voice entry correction described above, the mailpiece sorting apparatus OCR system reads the bar code ID on the mailpiece. The mailpiece bar code ID is then stored in conjunction with the recipient information from the recipient matching software in a special bar code ID/recipient file. The next time the mailpiece is sorted, the bar code ID is read. The bar code ID is used to deliver the mailpiece to the sender.
An advantage of the method of the present invention is that it provides higher throughput with minimal additional hardware, software and labor costs. Another advantage of the present invention is that it allows for additional automated processing. Another advantage of the present invention is that it allows for xe2x80x9creturn to senderxe2x80x9d mailpiece processing without typing skills needed for video coding. Other advantages of the invention will in part be obvious and will in part be apparent from the specification. The aforementioned advantages are illustrative of the advantages of the various embodiments of the present invention.